Vitamin E comprises a group of natural substances known as tocopherols. These are fat soluble, closely related chemical compounds commonly found in vegetation and more abundantly in seeds. d-Alpha-tocopherol has the greatest biological activity while its homologs have vitamin E activity to a lesser extent. Alpha-tocopherol in its natural state is easily absorbed and utilized in humans and animals. Processing of foods and feeds by industry for long term storage promotes accelerated degradation of effective vitamin E content. To compensate for the loss of natural vitamin E from food sources, nutritional supplements of natural or synthetic fat soluble vitamin E supplements are administered by injection or orally. However, certain human and animal species do not sufficiently absorb the natural or synthetic fat soluble vitamin E supplements.
Water-soluble tocopherol derivatives are disclosed in U.S. 2,680,749. These water soluble vitamin E derivatives are waxy compounds identified generally as alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol esters. It has been demonstrated in humans with malabsorption syndromes that a water solution of these vitamin E derivatives is an excellent source of vitamin E. d-Alpha-tocopherol polyethylene glycol ester is a waxy material that is melted and added up to 20 wt % to hot water to form a slurry. This slurry must then be stirred vigorously 2 to 4 hours to form an aqueous solution. This solution of vitamin E derivative is either ingested in the liquid state or is placed on a dry carrier such as fumed silica or cellulose or placed on a dry food carrier such as milk solids. The use of a solution of this vitamin E supplement, however, has limited utility. A powdered material would be preferable due to the ease in handling, since it would not require the additional steps of forming a water solution and drying when mixed with feeds. Additionally, a powdered form of this water soluble vitamin E derivative would not require refrigeration since it would not promote microbial growth as does the water solution.
There are many methods of forming various vitamin products, including vitamin E, into a free flowing composition such as disclosed in U.S. 3,914,430 which discloses a spray drying process. However, these known methods are for the fat or lipid soluble vitamin E forms and are not applicable to the water soluble vitamin E derivative. It would, therefore, be very desirable to be able to produce a free flowing dry powdered form of alpha-tocopherol polyethylene glycol ester without the need of first forming an aqueous solution.